Tuesday, August 20, 2019

20th August,2019 Daily Global Regional Local Rice E-Newsletter




Myanmar’s Cross-Border Trade with China Halted by Clashes
The Muse Border Gate on the Myanmar side / The Irrawaddy
          
          
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By AUNG THIHA 19 August 2019
YANGON—Myanmar’s border trade with China through Muse in northern Shan State has come to a complete halt due to the destruction of bridges by rebel forces on the Mandalay-Muse Road, and ongoing clashes.
Through the Muse border trade zone, Myanmar mainly exports rice, corn, sugar, other agricultural produce and marine products, and imports building materials, machinery, electronics and other raw materials from China. The total value of bilateral trade shipped through Muse is around US$3 million (4.57 billion kyats) per day, according to the Commerce Ministry.
Trade via Muse has completely halted as the route to the border has become inaccessible due to ongoing clashes. Chinese traders are staying away from the town, said U Aung Kyaw Moe, chief executive officer of Muse-based public company North Eastern Gate.
“The road was off limits till this morning due to security concerns. Yesterday, all vehicles had to return [to their points of origin]. So, both commercial and passenger transport has been halted,” he said.
The border trade dried up after clashes between the Myanmar military and a joint rebel force of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, Ta’ang National Liberation Army and Arakan Army on Aug. 15.
Though the Construction Ministry is currently repairing the bridges destroyed by rebel forces, it will still be difficult to resume trade given the lack of regional security, traders said.
“The halt in trade doesn’t just affect exports, it also poses difficulties for all those involved in [trade] circles. It also affects associated businesses like [owners and drivers of] cargo trucks and restaurants. If the road is closed for a week, then commodity prices will also increase in parts of the country to the south,” said U Aung Kyaw Moe.
Myanmar is not currently exporting seasonal fruits to China, but producers of value-added fishery products, to whom China has granted official permission to import from Myanmar, are suffering heavy losses, said U Soe Than, who exports eels to China.
“Yesterday, 10 trucks carrying eels bound for China were stuck in Kutkai, and the eels had to be given away or dumped there. And eel stocks in Mandalay and Yangon will have to be sold in the domestic market as they can’t be exported to China,” he said.
According to U Soe Than, a truckload of eels is worth around 26 million kyats.
“Rice exports to China stalled before the clashes broke out. The Myanmar government is working to facilitate official exports of rice to China on a government-to-government basis, but since this [the clashes] happened, the whole process has stalled,” said Mandalay-based rice merchant U Tin Hlaing Win.
Myanmar’s rice is mainly exported to China through border trade, and though the Myanmar government allows official exports of rice to China, Chinese authorities consider rice imports from Myanmar illegal. Whenever there is a crackdown on illegal rice imports, Myanmar’s rice trade with China stalls.
But even under such circumstances, at least 50,000 bags of rice are exported per day through illegal channels, said U Tin Hlaing Win. “But now, everything has stalled,” he said.
Rice exported from Myanmar to China sells for 100 yuan (21,619 kyats) per bag.
“Previous road closures were not this bad. And roads could be used for certain hours during the day. But now, the road to Naung Cho and Lashio is closed. This has severely disrupted trade,” said a Muse-based trader on condition of anonymity.
From Oct. 1, 2018 to Aug. 9, 2019, Myanmar’s exports to China through the Muse border trade zone earned a total of $2.75 billion, and imports were worth $1.53 billion, taking the combined value of trade to $4.28 billion, according to the Commerce Ministry.
Pakistan trade balance improves by 19pc

Country got immediate market access on 313 items of prime export interest which cover over $8.7b of global exports


APP

August 20, 2019

ISLAMABAD     -    Pakistan trade balance has improved by 19 percent, with trade deficit also declining from $ 37.6 billion to $30.6 billion in the last one year. The country’s exports remained stable at around $23 billion and exports were also protected from external shocks from regional geo-political uncertainty in the wake of Pulwama incident, depreciation of major currencies and trade war between two major markets United States and China, the one-year performance report shared by Establishment Division said. 
The exports sustained through policy interventions, extension of PM’s Export Enhancement Package for three years, relief to 5 major export sectors in energy prices, exchange rate rationalisation, and import tariff concession on 422 raw materials of export-oriented industries.
The country’s imports reduced from $60.8 billion to $ 53.8 billion by 12 percent saving of $7 billion.
According to the reports, regulatory duty imposed on non-essential imported items that include Sanitary and Phytosanitary restrictions imposed on imported food items, labelling conditions and mandatory halal certification imposed on imported edible products, Procedure for import of used cars reformed to check misuse of the import policy, Rationalisation of exchange rate discouraged imports by increasing price Commerce Division.
The government has also priorities the market excess in different potential markets of the world including China and Middle East.
In the second Phase of Pakistan China Free Trade Agreement (PCFTA-II) concluded in May, 2018. The Pakistan had got immediate market access on 313 items of prime export interest which cover over $8.7 billion of global exports and $64 billion worth of Chinese imports (approx. 90 percent). China allowed duty-free market access to Pakistani textiles and food items including yarn, sugar and rice worth $1 billion.
Pakistan had got unilateral market access from Indonesia on 20 products as appendage to Pakistan-Indonesia Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA).
According to the reports, as the result of Prime Minster Imran Khan’s visit to Qatar in January 2019, 8-year old ban on Pakistani Basmati rice was lifted in Qatar. Tender for procurement of 4,000 tons of Pakistani basmati rice was issued in July 2019. Pakistan has also obtained 500,000 MT of rice export order from Iran.
The government has also revived of technical level talks with South Korea for negotiation of Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which had been stalled since 2017.
The government also provided relief to dates farmers by clearance of stuck-up inventories of dried dates, by export to nontraditional. The government has also initiated the legal and Policy reforms in Ministry of commerce for increasing the country’s exports.
National Tariff Policy also prepared as part of 100-day agenda to transform import tariffs from revenue generation tool to trade policy instrument, report added.  The import tariffs on 1635 raw materials removed in budget 2019-20.
Exporters provided liquidity relief by simplifying procedures for disbursement of sales tax refunds and claims under PM’s Export Package.
The country’s exporters insulated from the increase in gas and electricity prices despite price hike in international market.
Floods destroy over 45,000 acres of paddy fields in Bago

Farmlands were submerged in Bago Region
PUBLISHED 15 AUGUST 2019
Description: Farmlands were submerged in Bago RegionTAUNGGOO- More than 45,000 acres of paddy fields were submerged due to rising water levels at Sittoung and Shwegyin Rivers in Bago Region during the first week of August, according to the Agricultural Department in Bago Region.
“The flash floods destroyed over 40,000 acres of monsoon paddy fields in 10 townships of Bago Region. About 47,000 acres of paddy fields were lost. The water level already receded. So, there is a little damage. Shwegyin Township experienced the worst situation and flood destroyed about 9,000 acres of paddy in Shwegyin. Paddies are being re-grown in the flood-hit paddy field. We, the Agriculture Department, can’t support it. But, we have reserve paddy. If there will be worst situation, we are going to distribute the reserve paddy,” said San San Oo, Assistant Director from Agricultural Department in Bago Region.
Since the beginning of August 5th, the water levels of Sittoung and Shwegyin Rivers exceeded its danger marks in eastern Bago Region. Totaling 45,722 acres of monsoon paddy fields in 10 Townships of Bago region had been damaged by floods. The authorities temporarily closed about 100 schools and evacuated nearly 20,000 flood victims from Shwegyin, Madauk, Nyaunglapin, Bago, Oaktwin and Kyaukgyi Townships, Bago Region.
That’s why the Bago Region Government Committee and the Union Government had already provided totaling 14,000 buckets of paddy seeds to the flood-hit areas in Bago Region

Govt issues more rice import permits to traders


Description: Agri01 081919Sacks of imported rice are delivered to a rice seller at San Andres district in Manila in this BusinessMirror file photo.
The Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) granted 2,294 permits to 208 private entities that sought to import 2.041 million metric tons (MMT) of milled rice since March, based on the latest data from the agency.
Figures from the BPI, an attached agency of the Department of Agriculture (DA) indicated that cooperatives, traders and institutions applied for sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances (SPS-IC) from March 5 to July 30.
In July alone, the BPI issued 776 SPS-IC for the purchase of 562,332.8 MT of rice from Myanmar, Spain, Thailand and Vietnam.
Among those applying for import permits from March to July, the agency’s records indicated that Arvin International Marketing Inc. accounted for the biggest volume at 72,018.6 MT.
Puregold Price Club Inc., the grocery-chain operator owned by businessman Lucio Co, was among the top 5 import applicants during the period with a cumulative volume of 55,585 MT.
A total of 173 eligible importers used 1,041 SPS-ICs and brought in 930,031.888 MT of rice as of end-July. The imports were sourced from Italy, Myanmar, Pakistan, Spain, Thailand and Vietnam.
The BPI was mandated to facilitate private-sector importation by issuing SPS-ICs once Republic Act (RA) 11203, which eased the restrictions on imports, took effect on March 5.
Under the new trade regime, private entities must only secure an SPS-IC from the BPI prior to importing rice. This is because RA 11203, or the rice trade liberalization law, removed the power of the National Food Authority (NFA) to regulate the local rice market and issue import licenses.
The BPI is mandated to act on every application to secure an import permit within seven days. Failure to do so would mean automatic approval of the application.
The entry of cheaper imports was tagged as the single biggest reason behind the plunge in domestic palay prices. Planters have already lost some P40 billion, as traders slashed their quotations for local palay, according to the Federation of Free Farmers.
The average farm-gate price of unhusked rice fell to P17.85 per kilogram in end-June, the lowest in two-and-a-half years, as rice imports surged past 1.3 MMT, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) said in a report that the country’s rice imports this year will rise by 20 percent to a record high of 3 MMT, making the Philippines one of the world’s top buyers of the staple.
The USDA also said purchases of imported rice rose after the government removed the quantitative restriction on rice with the implementation of RA 11203.
4362 hectares of paddy destroyed due to drought
Written by Staff Writer    15 Aug, 2019 | 8:58 AM
Colombo (News 1st): The Department of Agriculture states that 4362 hectares of paddy in the Yala season have been destroyed due to the drought. The Chief Meteorologist in the Department Dr Ranjith Punyawardana stated that over 500,000 hectares of paddy have been cultivated under 72 major reservoirs.
In addition, 68,735 hectares of paddy and 6468 hectares of additional crops have been cultivated with water obtained from 272 central reservoirs. Punyawardana added that the harvesting of Yala season has commenced.
He said that due to the lack of adequate water supply, the commencement of cultivation in the next Maha season is at risk.


Millers to supply rice at reduced price to TTD

TIRUMALA, AUGUST 18, 2019 00:53 IST

Move will help the administration save 60 lakh in three months

Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Special Officer A.V. Dharma Reddy managed to prevail upon rice millers to supply fine quality of rice to the temple at a reduced price.
At a meeting with leaders of several rice miller associations on Saturday, Mr. Dharma Reddy successfully persuaded them to supply rice at 37 per kg, as against the existing price of 38, for a period of three months.
The reduction in price of 1 per kg of rice is expected to help the TTD save an amount of about 60 lakh in the three-month period.
The rice supplied by the millers is used by TTD in the making of anna prasadams at the hill temple as well as in the cooking of free meals under its Nitya Annadanam scheme. About 1,60,000 pilgrims are fed under the scheme, for which the monthly requirement of rice is 750 tonnes.
This apart, about six to eight tonnes of vegetables are required by TTD to meet its daily requirements in the Annadanam scheme.
Detailing the merits of the scheme, Mr. Dharma Reddy urged the millers to supply some quantity of rice free of cost to which they readily agreed and assured him a supply of 275 quintals of rice as a goodwill gesture.

Goodwill gesture

Chairman and General Secretary of All India Rice Millers Association Gummadi Venkateswara Rao and Mohan Rao said that they would discuss the issue of supplying some free rice to TTD on a regular basis with the leaders of various district associations and contribute their bit for the flourishing of the Nitya Annadanam scheme.
He later held a meeting with potu workers at the Vaibhavotsava mandapam and assured to resolve their problems in a phased manner.

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Siddaramaiah warns of protests if rice quantity is cut under Anna Bhagya scheme

Claiming that there was a proposal to cut down the quantity of rice given under the pro-poor scheme, Siddaramaiah wanted the state government not to tamper with it.

   
Description: https://static-news.moneycontrol.com/static-mcnews/2018/05/CM-Siddaramaiah-Congress-Karnataka-2018-770x433.jpg
Senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah on August 17 warned of protests by his party if the BJP-led government in Karnataka meddled with the 'Anna Bhagya scheme of offering free rice to the poor.
Claiming that there was a proposal to cut down the quantity of rice given under the pro-poor scheme, he wanted the state government not to tamper with it.
"Poor people will not tolerate this move. Our party will also protest against this decision. We will fight against it inside and outside the assembly," the former Chief Minister said. ".. I learnt that the amount of rice given under Anna Bhagya scheme will be curtailed and funds will be diverted to the Prime Minister Kisan Samman Scheme... This decision is anti-poor," Siddaramaiah told reporters here.
In 2013, the "Anna Bhagya" scheme was unveiled by then Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. Its an ambitious initiative to supply 30 kg of rice at Re one to nearly one crore poor families across the state.
Slamming the BJP government for not releasing funds for the Indira Canteens in Bengaluru, the former Chief Minister said, "I have learnt that the government is not providing funds for the Indira Canteen, which is around Rs 200 crore per annum." "The state government wants BBMP to run it, which is not good. The state should fund it," he said.
Earlier, the BJP government had hinted that it would review the Anna Bhagya scheme to check its misuse. Pointing out that 1.12 crore families are covered under AnnaBhagya scheme, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa had said on August 2 that there was large scale "misuse" of this scheme though only the needy should avail the benefit of it.
"According to my estimate in each district there are over a lakh of them who are misusing it, which has to be stopped to benefit the poor. Because we are purchasing the rice at a market price and distributing, we are paying Rs 32-33 per kg," the chief minister had said.
Yediyurapa had also said the officials would survey the beneficiaries.

Kharif Acreage Down 4%, Rice Area Lower By 11%


Capital Market Last Updated at August 19, 2019 12:50 IST
According to data released by the Agriculture Ministry, the total sown area of kharif crops stood at 926 lakh hectares (lh) as on 16th August 2019 compared to 966 lh covered in the corresponding week last year, recording a slide of 4.14% on year. The area under major crop rice was 301 lh, down around 11% on last year. The area under pulses stands at 121 lh, down 3.5% on year. However the Tur area is up marginally by 0.08% at 42.17 lh.
Acreage under coarse cereals is down 0.30% at 159.46 lh. Maize area is up 0.78% at 73.61 lh. Oilseeds area is down 0.75% at 163.62 lh. Soybean area is up 0.46% at 111.47 lh. Sugarcane acreage stands at 52.30 lh, down 5.68% while Cotton area is up 5.57% at 121.58 lh.
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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Bumper rice and wheat output pushes grain yield close to 285 million tonnes

Our Bureau  New Delhi | Updated on August 19, 2019  Published on August 19, 2019
Description: https://bl.thgim.com/incoming/9omwzu/article29160955.ece/alternates/PORTRAIT_435/foodgrainjpg

Staples make up for dip in pulses and coarse cereals

Rice and wheat production in the country scaled new heights to make up for the dip in pulses and coarse cereals output and took total foodgrain output in 2018-19 to 284.95 million tonnes (mt), matching the 285 mt foodgrains produced in the previous year (2017-18), according to the fourth advance foodgrain estimates released by the Agriculture Ministry on Monday.
Despite a below-par monsoon, rice output touched 116.42 mt mt, nearly 3.25 per cent more than the 112.76 mt produced in 2017-18, while wheat production crossed the three-digit mark for the first time to achieve 102.19 mt, thanks to a favourable, prolonged winter
Pulses output, on the other hand, came down to 23.4 mt as compared to 25.42 mt; coarse cereals production, at 42.95 mt, was nearly 8.6 per cent lower than last year.
Oilseeds production was at 32.26 mt, slightly better than the 31.46 mt produced in 2017-18.
Among the pulses crops that took a major hit last year were tur, whose output was 3.59 mt (4.29 mt last year), gram 10.13 mt (11.38 mt) and urad whose production was 3.26 mt (3.49 mt).
At 2.35 mt, the production of moong on the other hand was higher than last year’s 3.03 mt, it said.
The output of all major coarse cereals in 2018-19 was lower than than in the previous year. While maize output was 27.23 mt as against 28.75 mt last year, that of bajra was 8.61 mt as compared to 9.21 mt in 2017-18.
Description: https://bl.thgim.com/economy/agri-business/qa1wda/article29160832.ece/alternates/FREE_615/bl21AugFoodgraincol

Soya production up

A substantial increase in soyabean production in 2018-19 more than covered for the shrinkage in groundnut output. While soyabean output in 2018-19 was 13.79 mt, as against 10.93 mt earlier, groundnut yield dropped to 6.7 mt as against 9.25 mt in 2017-18. The output of rapeseed and mustard too was pretty impressive at 9.34 mt as compared to 8.43 mt the year before.
Pest infestation, however, impacted cotton production drastically with output being pegged at 28.71 million bales (one bale is 170 kg) as against 32.81 million bales in 2017-18. Sugar output on the other hand was 5 per cent higher at 400 mt.

Thailand Rice Exports Down 30 percent During January1-August 4,2019

Thailand Rice Exports Down 30 percent During January1-August 4,2019
August 19, 2019 9:23 IST | capital market 
As per the latest official sources, Thailands rice exports (excluding fragrant rice) for July 29 - August 4, 2019, totaled 63,592 metric tons, down 46,158 metric tons from the previous week and down 33,911 metric tons from the four weeks moving average of 97,503 metric tons. Rice exports from January 1 - August 4, 2019, totaled 3,834,111 metric tons, down 30 percent from the same period last year.

 

Economic Buzz: UK CBI Manufacturing Orders Decrease At Slower Pace In August

Economic Buzz: UK CBI Manufacturing Orders Decrease At Slower Pace In August
August 20, 2019 16:27 IST | capital market 
UK manufacturing orders decreased at a slower pace in August, the Industrial Trends Survey from the Confederation of British Industry showed Tuesday. The order book balance rose to -13 percent in August from -34 percent in July. Likewise, the export order book balance improved to -15 percent from -32 percent. Manufacturers expect to keep output prices in the next three months broadly unchanged - the lowest balance since February 2016.

Rainy spells force farmers to idle fields

1.3 million Arkansas acres are counted as sitting emptyby Stephen Steed | August 18, 2019 at 2:30 a.m.
Arkansas farmers didn't plant anything this spring on 1.3 million acres -- fifth-most in the nation -- because of heavy and frequent rainfall and occasional flooding.
Last year, "prevented planting" of insured crops in Arkansas amounted to 187,875 acres.

Basmati paddy futures contract launched

Description: https://bl.thgim.com/portfolio/commodity-analysis/bprlg8/article29125689.ece/alternates/WIDE_660/PO19BAS

Pusa 1121 is exported to countries including Iran, Saudi Arabia and UAE

Commodities exchanges NCDEX (National commodities and derivatives exchange) and ICEX (Indian commodity exchange) launched basmati paddy futures — Pusa 1121 variety last month, adding one more commodity to the agri futures.

Kenya launches research on dwindling rice harvests amid growing demand

Source: Xinhua| 2019-08-18 19:43:53|Editor: xuxin
NAIROBI, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Mercy Nyokabi wades through a swampy ground trying to chase away a flock of birds having a field day on her farm in rice growing region of Mwea in Central Kenya.
Nyokabi who inherited the rice farm from her parents, said dwindling harvests have been her biggest nightmare. She partly blames the birds but she believes that erratic weather also contributes to the woe.
"The last two years have been the hardest, I barely get a ton from an acre piece of land yet a few years ago we used to get over 30 tons from the same piece of land. This area is suitable for rice farming which makes it hard for us to switch to other crops," said Nyokabi.
Her woes are likely to be eased as Yara, a global fertilizer manufacturer together with the Kenya's Irrigation Board have commissioned a research to establish the cause of the declining rice harvests.
The investigations are aimed at finding out the amount of damage caused by fertilizers and farm chemicals in the rice growing regions.
For instance, Nyokabi still follows the same script her parents used decades ago which Kefa Maranga, an agronomist with Yara attributes to the prevailing situation.
"All what the rice growers are complaining about is as a result of rising soil acidity due to continued use of fertilizers and general poor farming ethic," said Maranga.
He pointed out that continued use of farm chemicals erodes soil of some of the crucial nutrients that plants need for growth and maximum production.
"When crops are starved of this nutrients they tend to stunt and the few that mature produce poorly which is evident in most of the farms here in Mwea. Most crops have a yellowish look which is a clear sign of unhealthy soils, we hope the investigations will lead us to a solution soon," he added.
Notably, most rice farmers in the region use ammonium-based fertilizers that also have high amounts of sulphur which acidifies the soil after continued use for a long time.
"Most fertilizers the farmers use have as high as 24 per cent of sulphur compared to the required 5.5 per cent. These chemicals have been piling up in the soil which I think is the greatest threat to the farmers right now," said Maranga.
Despite Kenya having the capacity to produce enough rice to meet the current demand, the country relies heavily on imports from Pakistan, Vietnam, Thailand and India.
Notably, rice is Kenya's third staple food after maize and wheat and production is estimated at between 33,000 and 50,000 metric tons, while consumption is between 180,000 and 250,000 tons.

Cameroonians outraged by imported rice as local rice left unsold


This photo was taken by the ACDIC president in far northern Cameroon in early August.
CAMEROON / FARMING - 08/19/2019

Description: https://scd.observers.france24.com/files/dynimagecache/0/99/960/539/1024/576/article_images/cameroun-acdic-riz-invendu.jpg
Photos of many sacks of rice stacked in warehouses in far northern Cameroon were posted on Facebook in early August. According to the group that posted the images-- which works for food sovereignty-- this rice was produced in Cameroon but has never been sold, even though the country imports large quantities of rice every year. The group called it a "scandalous" situation, considering the struggles faced by local rice producers. 

These photos were taken on August 2 and 3, then posted online on August 5 by Bernard Njonga, the president of a group that works for food sovereignty and other topics, called ACDIC, or the Citizen Association for the Defense of Collective Interests (in French, Association citoyenne de Défense des Intérêts collectifs).

The photos and videos, which have garnered tens of thousands of views, were taken in Yagoua and Maga, where most of Cameroon’s rice is grown. They show locally produced rice stocked in warehouses belonging to a public organisation that supports local rice growers called the Society for the Expansion and Modernisation of Rice-growing in Yagoua (known as SEMRY, the acronym for the French Société d’Expansion et de Modernisation de la Riziculture de Yagoua).
"The SEMRY shops are full of unhusked rice in YAGOUA and Maga (about 160,000 tons). Some of the stock dates back to 2015", reads the post. "We import and import rice more and more. More than 800,000 tons in 2017 for a total of more than 150 billion FCFA."

According to ACDIC president Njonga, who wrote the post, this situation came about because it is more profitable for shopkeepers to buy foreign rice than local rice.

"Cameroonian rice producers don’t get any subsidies"
Bernard Njonga told the FRANCE 24 Observers team about what he calls a "scandalous" situation.
When I went to Yagoua and Maga, I didn’t expect to see so much rice in the warehouses- especially not rice that has been sitting there unsold since 2015!
Currently, the cost of producing rice in Cameroon elevated because rice producers don’t get any subsidies. What's more, transporting a bag of rice between Yagoua and Yaoundé costs more than if it came from Beijing. So, for shopkeepers, it is more profitable to buy foreign rice than local rice. So, Cameroonian rice producers are becoming poorer and poorer.

We think that three things need to be done. First, we need to impose a quota, insuring that local shopkeepers buy a certain percentage of local rice. [Editor’s note: The ACDIC has already launched a petition calling for this.] We also need to provide subsidies to local farmers, and to promote local rice to improve its image. 

Nothing out of the ordinary, according to SEMRY
The FRANCE 24 Observers reached out to the director general of SEMRY, but he did not respond to our request for comment.
However, SEMRY did release a statement in response to the post by the president of the ACDIC, explaining that SEMRY had "started to store rice in its shops in Maga and Yagoua in 2017", "in preparation for the launch of […] two new machine lines" purchased by the government to “relaunch the transformation of paddy rice”. This could explain why there was so much rice stocked in the SEMRY warehouses.
However, SEMRY did not respond to the comments made by the ACDIC president about the difference in price between local rice and foreign rice, and the difficulties of rice producers.

Description: https://scd.observers.france24.com/files/imagecache/observers_portrait_width/rfi_multimedia_element_image/dff6d497-9e16-489a-b6d4-88de7fd45f9e.jpg
The statement by the director general of SEMRY.
"People know that working in the rice sector isn’t profitable but many do it because they don’t have a choice"
Narcisse Guybolo, the founder of Agri-Invest, a company that supports farmers (especially rice producers), spoke the FRANCE 24 Observers team about the difficulties faced by rice producers in Cameroon.
I think the main problem is that SEMRY doesn’t support rice farmers as it should. There are about 100,000 rice producers living in the region around Yagoua and Maga. Currently, SEMRY rents these farmers just under 27,200 acres of land. SEMRY takes care of the irrigation of this land but doesn’t give the farmers information on how to use agricultural inputs or how to access new technology. Moreover, they have very little training in the commercialization of their products.

So rice producers buy their own seeds and inputs at a high price and then they don’t use the best techniques and they fall into debt.

People in this region know full well that working in the rice-producing sector isn’t profitable but many of them do it anyway because they don’t have a choice. It does represent the main economic activity in the region.
"The export of Cameroonian rice to Nigeria stopped in 2015”
Up until 2015, almost all Cameroonian rice was sold in Nigeria. But the exports stopped because of an increase in activities carried out by the terrorist group Boko Haram in the region.
Currently, the aim is to sell the rice internally. However it remains difficult to get intermediaries interested in buying and distributing this rice because it remains cheaper to import rice from abroad.

Changing temperatures hitting crop yield

Hemanta Pradhan | TNN | Updated: Aug 19, 2019, 17:32 IST

BHUBANESWAR: It is a known fact that local climate keeps significance for agriculture work. If it gets affected due to any external factor, crops certainly get damaged or disturbed. And the climate change, a major concern in the world, has also created problem for the productivity of agriculture produces.
Global warming is the major reason behind climate change. Due to this, India and other South Asian countries experience less and erratic rainfall and it leads to drought in some regions.
The Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) Bhubaneswar has done research regarding impact of climate change on agriculture in the state. Agrometeorologist Anupama Baliarsingh of the university said the state is witnessing a very peculiar thing like less rain in coastal areas and more rains in other districts.
In Odisha, there are instances of flood at one part and drought in other parts of the state. “Due to climate change, state gets more pre-monsoon showers and delays the starting of monsoon rain. State receives less rain in post-monsoon period. Especially, February, June and October months witness less rainfall and its affect agriculture works,” she added.
The professor said overcast sky has become a common phenomenon now. Except July, people experience rise in day and night temperature in other months. The summer season is extended till mid-June. “Yield of crop has been reduced due to rise in day and night temperature. Warm nights in October affects flowering of paddy plants and farmer get less quality rice. Direct seeding of rice (buna dhana) face problem for long summer days and less rainfall in June,” she added.
The OUAT research shows that rise in temperature during winter season will affect winter crops. For example, if temperature increases by 0.5 degree Celsius, wheat yield will be reduced by 1.8 quintal per acre. More rains and flood situation will bring damage to soil quality and crops.
Another major problem is pest attack. The brown plant hopper (BPH) pest, which had damaged paddy crop in western Odisha especially Bargarh district in 2017, grows in the paddy field due to less rainfall and high humidity. It happens due to climate change.
Baliarsingh said sea side land may be submerged by salt water and farmer cannot grow crops like earlier. Agricultural land of coastal areas especially Mahanadi basin may become salty due to the rise in tidal wave.
Himanshu Pathak, director of ICAR-National Rice Research Institute (NRRI), Cuttack, said global climate change is considerably affecting and will continue to affect the food supply and access through direct and indirect effects on crops, soils, livestock, fisheries and pests.
In western Odisha, Pathak said, some areas include Nuapada, Bhawanipatna and Balangir face less rainfall leading to drought, while other parts get heavy rainfall. “Variation of local climate is not new, but its frequency is increasing due to climate change. We receive so much of rain within a short span of time and then no rain for around 15 or 20 days. This dry spell is dangerous and affect agriculture,” he added.
He said concerted efforts are required for mitigation and adaptation to reduce the vulnerability of Indian agriculture to the adverse impacts of climate change and making it more resilient,” he added.

NRRI has developed two rice varieties to withstand the impact of climate change. These varieties, CR Dhan 801 and CR Dhan 802, possess submergence as well as drought tolerance ability. Due to climate change, flood, drought and pests affect the agriculture works. But these unique rice varieties can tolerate submergence of water and drought defying the climate change. Besides, these are resistant to stem borer, leaf folder, plant hoppers and case worm while moderately resistant to bacterial blight, sheath rot and rice tungro virus.
CR Dhan 801 is developed keeping the condition of Odisha, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, while CR Dhan 802 (renamed as Subhas) is released for Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. These climate-smart varieties can be yield in 140-145 days.
Jurin floats rice price insurance
Policy to cover five types of grain, boost farmer income
published : 18 Aug 2019 at 04:00
newspaper section: News
old is new again: Democrat leader and Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit, middle, poses for a group photo with party members who gathered yesterday in Bangkok to brainstorm ideas to strengthen the 73-year-old party.
Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit has proposed price insurance for five types of rice, to help farmers deal with the lower price of crops.
Mr Jurin said the proposal is based on a resolution from a recent meeting chaired by farmers' representatives, rice trade associations and state officials.
The collective decision agrees to set conditions on insured paddies, including its maximum insured amount that will range from 14 to 30 tonnes, and the rate of 15% moisture. However, the rice insurance package will not cover "short-lived" rice, or rice that is harvested within less than 100 days of being planted.
"Once the insurance prices are announced, 3.9 million farmers will benefit from it," Mr Jurin said. The rice insurance policy is not new. Between 2011 and 2013, the Democrat-led government implemented crop price insurance and a crop price guarantee.
The rice price insurance scheme offers compensation if market prices are below the benchmark, said Mr Jurin. Five paddy strains have been chosen for this year's programme.
They are khao chao, khao hom mali (jasmine rice), khao hom changwat, khao hom Pathum Thani and khao niao (sticky rice). Under the proposal, farmers will see the price of khao chao insured at 10,000 baht per tonne, but the insured rice cannot exceed 30 tonnes per approved case.
Up to 14 tonnes of the khao hom mali will be insured at 15,000 baht per tonne, up to 16 tonnes of the khao hom changwat at 14,000 baht, up to 25 tonnes of khao hom Pathum Thani for 11,000 baht per tonne, and up to 16 tonnes of khao niao (sticky rice) for 12,000 baht per tonne.
The insurance prices will be approved by the National Rice Policy Committee and then forwarded to the cabinet for final approval before their announcement, Mr Jurin said. The officials will also launch additional measures to reduce production costs and prevent excessive supply, he added.
Sompit Aimthong, a farmer in Pathum Thani, welcomed the insurance package as rice with 25% moisture can only fetch between 6,500 and 7,000 baht per tonne. "If the government sets the insurance price at 10,000 baht per tonne, farmers will survive," she said.The state help is needed as farming costs are increasing and paddies are also plagued by insects, said Somnuek Tang-on, another farmer in Pathum Thani.
Govt keen on maintaining SGM in breaking rice monopoly

Tuesday, August 20th, 2019 at , News
by RAHIMI YUNUS & SHAHEERA AZNAM SHAH/ pic by TMR
THE single gatekeeping mechanism (SGM) remains a viable option for the management, distribution and import of rice as the government seeks to safeguard the country from food shocks and volatilities.
Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Datuk Salahuddin Ayub (picture) said the existence of a single party to safeguard the rice industry would ensure speedier actions in the event of supply chain disruptions.
“If we are considering food security, the industry would be better if it is controlled by a single party which practises a standard operation.
“If anything happens, we can swiftly detect the root of the problem and prevent it from getting worse,” he told The Malaysian Reserve (TMR) in a recent interview.
There were calls from certain parties for the government to pull the shutter on the rice monopoly enjoyed by Padiberas Nasional Bhd (Bernas). They claimed the opening of the sector would allow the import of cheaper rice.
Bernas, the country’s sole rice importer, fired back, claiming that other companies may not import the commodity if price rises to avoid selling the commodity at a loss.
Rice price spiked to about US$1,000 (RM4,130) a tonne in May 2008 compared to about US$220 in early 2004, for example, sending many parts of the world on the brink of a food crisis. But rice prices in Malaysia at that time remained the same due to SGM.
Salahuddin said among the monopoly cases being discussed, the committee is prioritising the gatekeeper role for the rice industry as it involves the food security of Malaysians.
“We have to look at the big picture to study the whole supply chain, its ecosystem and social impact.
“It is easy to be the wholesale importer for rice, but it is not easy to guard the rice industry and be responsible for the country’s food security. They have to supervise the stockpile and farming application of the local farmers, not only rice import,” he said.
Salahuddin added that the government is considering two models in breaking up the monopolised industry — either issue an open tender bidding for SGM or establish a new model where multiple companies are appointed as the gatekeepers.
“We will provide several options and we are considering opening a tender when Bernas’ concession ends. It would be open to the best companies who can do as good a job as Bernas, or maybe even better than that.
“Through this model, we would maintain the SGM. However, considering the numerous interests in the role by others, we could open the responsibility to several companies,” he said.
Salahuddin added that the ministry requires six more months to single out the best options before they can be presented to the Cabinet for a final decision.
“This is not about being the national rice importer, it is about safeguarding the rice industry.
“Bernas, for many years, has succeeded in safeguarding the country’s food security, which is why we have to be very careful. We don’t want any issues to arise when we break the monopoly.
“We should not rush into this. We need more time, maybe about six months as the concession ends in January 2021,” he said.
The local rice industry has been solely managed through the SGM, which was established over 45 years ago.
Bernas, through the mechanism, was appointed as the guardian for the country’s rice management to prevent a food crisis and be the buffer in the event of it.
According to reports, Bernas incurred losses of over RM70 million during the rice crisis between 2008 and 2009 due to higher import prices, while keeping transacted prices at the lower end.
In addition to its role as the national importer, the rice company is tasked to safeguard and guarantee the livelihood of more than 300,000 farmers in the country.
At present, Bernas imports about 700,000 to 800,000 metric tonnes of rice per annum, while the stockpile stands at 150,000 metric tonnes per year.
Govt keen on maintaining SGM in breaking rice monopoly Description: https://themalaysianreserve.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/p5s1-Salahuddin.jpgTuesday, August 20th, 2019 at , News
by RAHIMI YUNUS & SHAHEERA AZNAM SHAH/ pic by TMR
THE single gatekeeping mechanism (SGM) remains a viable option for the management, distribution and import of rice as the government seeks to safeguard the country from food shocks and volatilities.
Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Datuk Salahuddin Ayub (picture) said the existence of a single party to safeguard the rice industry would ensure speedier actions in the event of supply chain disruptions.
“If we are considering food security, the industry would be better if it is controlled by a single party which practises a standard operation.
“If anything happens, we can swiftly detect the root of the problem and prevent it from getting worse,” he told The Malaysian Reserve (TMR) in a recent interview.
There were calls from certain parties for the government to pull the shutter on the rice monopoly enjoyed by Padiberas Nasional Bhd (Bernas). They claimed the opening of the sector would allow the import of cheaper rice.
Bernas, the country’s sole rice importer, fired back, claiming that other companies may not import the commodity if price rises to avoid selling the commodity at a loss.
Rice price spiked to about US$1,000 (RM4,130) a tonne in May 2008 compared to about US$220 in early 2004, for example, sending many parts of the world on the brink of a food crisis. But rice prices in Malaysia at that time remained the same due to SGM.
Salahuddin said among the monopoly cases being discussed, the committee is prioritising the gatekeeper role for the rice industry as it involves the food security of Malaysians.
“We have to look at the big picture to study the whole supply chain, its ecosystem and social impact.
“It is easy to be the wholesale importer for rice, but it is not easy to guard the rice industry and be responsible for the country’s food security. They have to supervise the stockpile and farming application of the local farmers, not only rice import,” he said.
Salahuddin added that the government is considering two models in breaking up the monopolised industry — either issue an open tender bidding for SGM or establish a new model where multiple companies are appointed as the gatekeepers.
“We will provide several options and we are considering opening a tender when Bernas’ concession ends. It would be open to the best companies who can do as good a job as Bernas, or maybe even better than that.
“Through this model, we would maintain the SGM. However, considering the numerous interests in the role by others, we could open the responsibility to several companies,” he said.
Salahuddin added that the ministry requires six more months to single out the best options before they can be presented to the Cabinet for a final decision.
“This is not about being the national rice importer, it is about safeguarding the rice industry.
“Bernas, for many years, has succeeded in safeguarding the country’s food security, which is why we have to be very careful. We don’t want any issues to arise when we break the monopoly.
“We should not rush into this. We need more time, maybe about six months as the concession ends in January 2021,” he said.
The local rice industry has been solely managed through the SGM, which was established over 45 years ago.
Bernas, through the mechanism, was appointed as the guardian for the country’s rice management to prevent a food crisis and be the buffer in the event of it.
According to reports, Bernas incurred losses of over RM70 million during the rice crisis between 2008 and 2009 due to higher import prices, while keeping transacted prices at the lower end.
In addition to its role as the national importer, the rice company is tasked to safeguard and guarantee the livelihood of more than 300,000 farmers in the country.
At present, Bernas imports about 700,000 to 800,000 metric tonnes of rice per annum, while the stockpile stands at 150,000 metric tonnes per year.

Much ado about food import ‘ban’

 by Sanya Oni


Trust Nigerians to go into frenzy over issues they had barely time to digest let alone understand; a lot has been said about the directive given by President Muhammadu Buhari in the course of his Eid-el-Kabir lunch with APC governors in Daura last week. The President, we are told, directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to stop providing foreign exchange for importation of food into the country, since according to him, agricultural production has not only steadied, but the country is already inching towards  food security.
“Don’t give a cent to anybody to import food into the country,’’ the president was quoted to have told his guests in a message meant for Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Godwin Emefiele. He had noted, perhaps for effect, that some states like Kebbi, Ogun, Lagos, Jigawa, Ebonyi and Kano had already taken advantage of the federal government’s policy on agriculture with huge returns in rice farming, urging more states to plug into the ongoing revolution to feed the nation.
For the hyperactive Nigerian commentariat, it was perhaps time again to kick dust. Unfortunately, such has been the deliberate muddling of the semantics that Nigerians are now at a loss as to what to make of it: Is it a case an outright ‘ban’ of food imports – which seems highly unlikely under the rules of the World Trade Organisation? Or, as it appears to be the case in this particular instance, barring food importers from access to foreign exchange– which though permissible and certainly not without precedent, has proven to be inefficacious?
And then, there are those who couldn’t care because our dear president means well for his constituency – the poor masses of this country!
Let’s admit that there are other contributors who not only see things different but more rationally. Among the latter is Kingsley Moghalu, a former Deputy Governor of the CBN who not only insists that the president lacks the power to so direct but was explicit that the Central Bank Act of 2007 makes clear that the bank “is independent, and not supposed to be taking direct instructions from politicians.”
IN this category is Bismarck Rewane, the economist and chief executive of Financial Derivatives who while expressing similar misgivings on the wider implications of the president’s directive, says Nigerians have reasons to worry. To quote him as reported by Punch: “Did this policy emanate from a holistic, cross-pollination of ideas after the rubbing of minds from the relevant stakeholders such as farmers, food processors, marketers, the Customs service as well as the Ministry of Agriculture across the country?
While a great number of Nigerians – certainly excepting the duo – could be forgiven for buying into the muddle, the presidency appears to be its chief promoter vide its inelegant response to the Financial Times report of August 15 on the issue. Nigerians who have not bothered to read the piece titled Muhammadu Buhari sparks dismay over policy shift on food imports should Google it to read. Written by its West Africa correspondent, Neil Munshi, the piece interestingly didn’t say anything new that highly informed Nigerians have not said about the knee-jerk, cut and paste, policies of the Buhari administration, the absence of internal coherence in its policies and plans, the conflation of monetary and fiscal policies, the systematic derogation of the independence – and I dare add – integrity – of the apex bank, and most worrisome, the clear absence of the clear-sighted leadership on the fiscal front.
Stopping short of editorialising, Financial Times actually did no more catalogue the views of some of those who should ordinarily know – never mind their role as critics – on these wide-ranging issues.
Take this sample of contribution by Amaka Anku, Africa director for the Eurasia Group as quoted by the author.  Her contention is that the policy  “sent a troubling message for an economy suffering from high unemployment, low foreign direct investment and sluggish growth”.
Said she: “Most actors, especially the central bank, should know that a total ban of food imports is not practical and I doubt that will be the policy”. She also observed that the president’s comments “will continue to drive home the sense that Buhari has no idea how to manage an economy and will raise uncertainty about what other [foreign exchange] restrictions are coming, and contribute to already low business confidence.”
Or Cobus de Hart, chief economist at NKC African Economics who said that the president’s call for a currency ban raised more “serious concerns”. The directive, he said, “also cast doubt on Nigeria’s commitment to a landmark continent-wide trade agreement, which it signed last month after more than a year of delay”.
As it appears, if the article was guilty of anything, it is for projecting those critical voices on the issue.  To imagine that the article, which yours truly has read at least twice, could have been so terribly and perhaps deliberately misunderstood; add to this the needless tiff by officials that ought to be more reflective and far less sentimental; surely, these are not normal times and just as has been said by many that our country Nigeria is not a normal country.
Will the restriction work? Aside being an overused weapon, its overall efficacy is suspect. Presently, we know the story of rice as indeed those of the 41 items earlier placed on forex ban. Restrictions or not, trade in those items continues to flourish. Don’t ask me where they source their forex from. Trust our officials to live in denial of the stratospheric rise in rice imports in Benin Republic, Niger and Cameroun; our markets continue to present the more plausible story of the astounding lacuna and the flawed assumptions that continues to be our nation’s undoing.
No doubt, the measure by the president was well-intended and most certainly, the president means well. However, until the administration is able to come to terms with the fact success will not be measured by the  number of items on the prohibition list or even by the dizzying zillions poured into ad hoc interventions including the much touted  anchor borrowers’ scheme, but in the ability of the administration to create a sustainable climate for agro-preneurship to thrive, the country will remain on the same spot.
This is where we need a completely new thinking. Emefiele and company at the apex bank can only do so much and all within the ambits of the monetary framework. As it is, Emefiele’s apex bank is increasingly being pushed to become a jack of all trades. I hope the time will not come when the bank will be called upon to help secure the borders!
Of course, current times demand strong leadership at the level of the Economic Management Team. We need this to push refreshingly bold ideas to get the country working. Put bluntly, an innovative and effective fiscal strategy is what has been lacking in the last four years.  For now, if I may use a cliché which I am well familiar, a strategy of forex restriction at this time is at best – a placebo.
Vietnamese Officials Visit USA Rice to Talk Trade 


ARLINGTON, VA -- The president of the Viet Nam Food Association (VFA), Viet Nam's Minister Counselor of Trade from their embassy here, and other staff visited USA Rice earlier this month to discuss developments in rice production and trading activities.  

The VFA is an umbrella organization comprised of companies that produce, process, and trade in food products, representing the majority of the country's importers and exporters of rice.  Viet Nam is the world's third largest rice exporter.  About 5 percent of rice imports into the U.S. come from Viet Nam.  The Vietnamese delegation said they have been encountering issues with maximum residue levels (MRLs) when attempting to export rice to the U.S. 

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Nam, president of VFA, saw some potential opportunities for U.S.-grown rice in the region.  First, there is opportunity to access the large Chinese market by exporting to Viet Nam first and then on to China.  And second, there may be opportunities for direct U.S. rice sales to Viet Nam focused on the high value expat market.

"Viet Nam is such a huge player in the global rice market, it makes sense to meet with them when we can," said Sarah Moran, USA Rice vice president international, who attended the meeting.  "We were encouraged to hear their thoughts on expanding our access in the region.  Of course, when it comes to expanding their access to our market, we continue to try to reduce rice imports from all sources and advised them that there is no way around food safety issues and the sticky issue of subsidies."

Quote of the Day

"When hungry, eat your rice; when tired, close your eyes.  Fools may laugh at me, but wise men will know what I mean.
                                                           - Linji Yixuan

The True Story of Wild Rice, North America's Most Misunderstood Grain


The Ojibwe people of northern Minnesota are sustained by the real wild rice, which they harvest by hand and dry over fire
August 9, 2019
Description: Field of wild rice in Minnesota lake.Almost all “wild” rice is cultivated, but the real thing grows freely on the lakes of northern Minnesota.Ackerman + Gruber
On a sunny afternoon in the last days of summer, I broke the first rule I had ever been taught about watercraft and stood up in a canoe. Mike Magney and Moon Jacobson of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe had offered to take me out onto Little Elbow Lake and show me the wild-rice harvest—not as a past-tense reenactment, we agreed, but in a present-tense this is how we do it sort of way. So as their canoe shot surely ahead into a thick stand of rice, I heaved my weight onto a 12-foot-long pole in an attempt to keep up. The wind took fierce bites out of the water, working against me. Cotton-­batting clouds sped across the blue gel of the sky. The northern Minnesota wild-rice harvest takes place during a two-week sliver of September, and the racing wind heightened our urgency.
We were at Sahkahtay, an annual wild-rice camp hosted by members of the Ojibwe tribe, one of the largest groups of Indigenous people north of Mexico, most of whom live in a long arc that stretches from the upper Midwest to Quebec.

Plunging one knocker into the rice stand, moon parted the stalks like hair, bending a thick hank over his lap with one hand and neatly sweeping off its loose seed heads with the other.

Description: Standing up with a pole and canoe in field of wild rice.The best way through wild rice is to stand up and pole a canoe.Ackerman + Gruber
Jacobson was at the three-day festival to teach ricing skills to the next generation and to harvest his own 50 pounds—"about half of what my grandma calls a year's supply." He grew up in Minneapolis but spent a lot of time with his grandmother in Mahnomen, a nearby town of 1,200. He followed her around, helping her put up her year's worth of food: harvesting berries, foraging for medicinal plants, and filling a buried chest freezer in her yard with whole walleye, which the arctic Minnesota temperatures swiftly preserved to stiffness.
Magney stood at the back of the canoe, pushing his pole into the thick chocolate mud of the lake bottom, using its lever action to propel them across the water. Jacobson sat in the front with a short wooden stick—called a knocker—in each hand. The stands of rice are thickest 20 feet from shore, and we rolled into them as if into a darkened forest of pencil-thin bamboo, the rice seed heads rattling like a dorm-room bead curtain. Plunging one knocker into the rice stand, Jacobson parted the stalks like hair, bending a thick hank over his lap with one hand and neatly sweeping off its loose seed heads with the other. Rice rained down obediently into the canoe as they moved forward, his poles tapping out a click-click-click rhythm born of years of repetition.
Wild rice is one of the only grains native to North America, and definitely its most misunderstood. It is not directly related to Asian rice. What’s more, the black rice you see in countless Thanksgiving stuffing recipes every fall is an imposter. Here in northern Minnesota, at the center of the genetic reserve of wild-rice seedstock, where it grows naturally in lakes and creeks, we call that black stuff by its proper name: paddy rice. In the 1960s, the University of Minnesota began domesticating wild rice. They planted it in rows in flooded paddies, which they drained to harvest by combine like any other field crop. Ironically, paddy-grown rice isn’t wild at all.
Real wild rice varies in shape and color from lake to lake, but once cooked, it is always some shade of luminescent milky brown—the color of tea spilled onto a saucer. It curls into loose ringlets that pop delicately between your teeth. It tastes the way a morning campfire smells: of smoldering wood coals and lake fog at dawn.
I'd been a guest of Sahkahtay as a curious local once before—I live 20 miles down the road—but this time I was more attuned to the language of this harvest. Some people there referred to the grain we were harvesting—a foundation of Ojibwe culture and ceremony—as manoomin, "the food that grows on water." No one called it "wild." Mostly, everyone just called it rice.
We headed to the shore, where a group was cooking the green rice in a giant cast-iron kettle. Like coffee beans, wild-rice kernels need to be roasted, or parched, over heat to firm their tawny core and dry for long-term storage.
Description: Aaron Dewandeler adds logs to his fire;Aaron Dewandeler adds logs to his fire.Ackerman + Gruber
Jacobson introduced me to Logan Cloud, an artfully tattooed, soft-voiced 20-something member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. While parching rice in an iron kettle over a birch-wood fire, he described the difference between wild rice and paddy rice in blunt terms: “Paddy rice is the Western mindset, in edible form,” he said.
The story of how real wild rice lost its name is a long tale of appropriation—­nothing less than one of the greatest identity thefts in American food history. Its story is braided tightly into the history of this region, a remote area where the economy, for both Native peoples and white settlers, has generally been one of subsistence. But it was the mostly white-owned paddy-rice industry, centered in California, that pushed to make wild rice a marketable commodity. In the ’70s, wild-rice prices soared, sending both tribe members and whites out onto the lakes in record numbers. Money—or at least the prospect of it—drove everyone to excess. People harvested too early, before the rice had a chance to reseed itself, wiping out once-flush stands. Tribe leaders moved without consensus to sow spent reservoirs with seeds from other waterways, wiping out age-old varieties. The University of Minnesota bred a rice with a thick stem that could handle mechanical harvesting, without any thought to the way it would cross-pollinate with the native plants.
Cloud bounced some hot, smoking rice onto the canoe paddle he was using as a stir stick, and lobbed a few kernels into his mouth to test for doneness, crunching audibly and spitting out the hulls. He threw another log onto his fire and described how he knew that the rice was getting close when it turned the toffee color of Golden Crisp cereal, “the one with the bear on the box.” He first went ricing at age 9 with his best friend, a portable radio set up in their canoe, to make some extra cash to buy the sneakers and jeans that fourth grade required. At his dad’s backyard rice camp, they parched rice over live fire in a steel drum.
At the point of first colonial contact, the Ojibwe smoke-dried their rice in birch-bark vessels strung up high over the fire. Cloud explained that these gave way to kettles sometime after “the invaders arrived and we realized that we could take something useful from them.”
Description: Logan Cloud tends to his cast-iron parching kettle.Logan Cloud tends to his cast-iron parching kettle.Ackerman + Gruber
Cloud moved to a treading pit lined with birch bark and filled it with about 6 inches of parched rice, then asked a volunteer in high moccasins to “jig” the rice, to loosen its hulls. She danced in short, halting steps, light and twisting at the hip. A drummer hammered out a bass beat, steady and hypnotic, the tempo set to keep the jigger jigging. Cloud transferred the rice to a shallow birch-bark basket and tossed it in the wind. This method was surprisingly effective at winnowing away the hulls, but still, it was hardly a speedy process. By the time it was finished, every grain of rice had passed through someone’s hands and every stray hull had been flicked out onto the grass.
Camps like this one anchor traditional ricing knowledge in the present, but they also function as social gatherings. Every- one I talk to at Sahkahtay remembers going to rice camps as children, where they moved through the harvest as if in reverse: first sitting next to the elders sorting out hulls, jigging as they got older, harvesting and parching as young adults. The people who come to Sahkahtay want to parch 50 or 60 pounds of rice for their own extended family in the most traditional and flavorful way, and preserve the social history.
Given that many local Ojibwe now parch in large steel-drum barrels over wood fires, Cloud’s iron kettle seems like a throwback. I asked him: In the long history of rice parching, from birch-bark vessels to the larger barrel parchers used today, why stop here? Why parch in the iron kettle? He smirked. “Doing it this way is like fixing your own car.” Then he said, more seriously: “When we began to mechanize the parching, we started thinking in a colonized way. Processing rice became easier, but our lives did not get easier.”
As we talked about large-batch parching, the age-old battle lines drawn between mechanization and handcraft, science and intuition, we ate wild rice from foam bowls. "Paddy rice is like chewing on wood chips," he said. "It'll stab your gums." But his real wild rice, cooked simply and sauced with maple syrup, fell lightly from my spoon like snow, and melted almost instantly on my tongue. My small bowlful somehow filled me up. Simultaneous lightness and heft is one of its gifts.

“If it weren’t for the rice, Ojibwe culture wouldn’t be here today,” Cloud said, “and if we lose it, we won’t exist as a people for long. We’ll be done too.”

Cloud, throwing fresh logs under a batch of green rice, described his small-scale parching in a sensory way. But his narrative quickly made tracks down the path of his people's history: the original prophecy that led them to the rice beds; Ojibwe astrology; the Christian missionaries intent on converting the natives; the boarding schools that separated children from their families, their language, and their ceremonies. And he circled back to where we began: the enormous paddy rice operations that inject science and greed into what should perhaps remain an intuitive process. "Both the scientist and the preacher, they want to know everything. They want to remake rice in their image."
Machinery and temperature gauges can break, making you question your own good judgment. And these modern methods can distance you from your culture. "If it weren't for the rice, Ojibwe culture wouldn't be here today," he said, moving a log with his boot, squinting from the glare of the white sun sinking toward the lake. "And if we lose it, we won't exist as a people for long. We'll be done too."
Even here, where wild rice grows abundantly, it can be hard to find a bag of the real thing. The grocery stores stock jet-black paddy rice and, occasionally, a few bags of sturdy, wood-parched Canadian wild rice. To get my yearly 10 pounds of the soft rice harvested nearby, I have to rely on my local connections.
Description: A harvester returns from Little Elbow Lake with a sack of wild rice.A harvester returns from Little Elbow Lake with a sack of wild rice.Ackerman + Gruber
Twenty miles down the road, in a parching shed near the town of ­Ponsford, on the White Earth Reservation, a fat black iron barrel the size of a commercial propane tank rolled on its spit over a jumping fire. The thick sweat of rice parching hung in the air, a mixture of smoke and water and grain. The toasting rice in the barrel exhaled humidity in quick, short bursts. Like a priest’s swinging censer, it gave off a thick smudge that rose up to the high crease of the shed’s peak. I’ve been buying rice from the Dewandeler’s parching operation for years—first from Lewy, now passed on, then from his son Richard, and now from Lewy’s grandson, Aaron. Among local wood-parched wild-rice processors, their shed is the cathedral. They parch in machines they’ve fabricated over the years. A 90-year-old engine pulled from a Ford Model A powers the huge barrel that spins over the wood fire. A cylinder painted sky blue houses a flywheel of soft paddles engineered to gently knock off the loosened hulls. And now Aaron has a new baby: a giant mechanical separator. It gyrated in the middle of the room, its screen plate shaking the good, beautiful finished rice to one end and the broken, undesirable rice to the other.
Three generations of parchers, and they all judge doneness differently. “You know how you don’t listen to your parents? My dad wouldn’t listen to his, and I didn’t listen to mine. My grandpa, he could see the doneness in the smoke, in the blue haze coming off the hot barrel. My dad can smell when it’s done. Me, I have a laser. And I taste it.”
Description: Parched rice being winnowed—tossed in the wind—to remove its hard outer hull.Left: Parched rice must be winnowed—tossed in the wind—to remove its hard outer hull. Right: A sign directs visitors to wild-rice camp.Ackerman + Gruber
He shot the laser into the rice to test temperature, then dipped a broom into the barrel, vigorously rubbed some loose kernels between his hands, and threw the rice into his mouth. Like most parchers, he can taste which body of water the rice came from. “This is heavy rice—mostly from Shell and Basswood lakes, but I like small-creek rice best. The little kernels take on more of the smoke.”
Aaron is white but has a complicated interface with Native culture common in the area. His kids are White Earth members; his grandparent’s farm is on the reservation, but only because the majority of White Earth land has been owned by non-native people since its inception.
He parches rice very differently from Logan Cloud, but they have some things in common: a desire to protect the genetic diversity of local rice, and a hatred for paddy rice—and for sand. Sand that gets in the rice, whether in the canoe or in the parching shed, is the enemy. Once it’s in, you can’t get it out. Every chance he gets, Aaron sweeps his cement floor clean.
He paused when a black Chevy Tahoe rolled up. “It’s the tribe, here to collect their rice,” he said, and started heaving the first of 15 burlap sacks toward the door. He loaded 900 pounds of finished rice into the back end, and the Tahoe slumped.

The transaction has a warm veneer of an illicit thrill, as if we’re buying something that will get taken away.

Description: Mike Magney and Moon Jacobson float in field of wild rice on canoe.Parched rice being winnowed—tossed in the wind—to remove its hard outer hull.Ackerman + Gruber
Aaron’s operation is as big as it gets around here. He parches tens of thousands of pounds of rice each fall, all within three weeks—possibly the limit for a solo operation. He usually sells out before Thanksgiving.
Two weeks later, Aaron texted me: “Come get your rice. It’s sitting there making my grandma nervous.” When I arrived, I found Bette Dewandeler in a housecoat at the kitchen table, sorting scrap-paper orders, her wit as dry as ever. Once a fixture behind the counter of the local post office, Bette would send me boxes of rice when I lived in New York City. As she is recently retired, everyone must now come to her.
As we talked, two trucks pulled up. My neighbors Adeline and Winnie walked into the kitchen, followed by some other guys I didn’t recognize, all of them with checkbooks in hand. Here, under the bright light of Bette’s kitchen, her table piled with plastic bags of rice and checks and wrinkled magazines, the transaction has the warm veneer of an illicit thrill, as if we’re buying something that will get taken away.
And it might. While the rice still grows wild on many local lakes and creeks, clogging up open channels the first week of September, its future is in question. Climate change and genetically modified rice threaten the manoomin seedstock. In this area alone, seven distinct varieties are at risk of being reseeded with hybridized rice, which ducks move from lake to lake. State wildlife management workers blow up beaver lodges, interfering with the natural water-level consistency that wild rice requires. Runoff seeps into the soil, raising sulfide levels above what this sensitive plant can handle.
The tribes continue to sell and ship out rice—some of it coming straight from Dewandeler’s parching shed—via their websites. And yet it feels like the local interest in hand-harvested, wood-parched rice—the smoky, good stuff—is on the wane. Most small-town gas stations used to sell a few bags in the fall but rarely continued the practice when they gave way to national chains. Meanwhile, health-food advocates—the same people who talk a big game about high-protein organic grains—ignore the one right under their noses.
But viewed another way, the rice has returned to the tribes and to the small parchers. It sits where it always has: in sheds and garages, tightly sheltered in burlap sacks, far from the masses—­perhaps just where it belongs.

Kenya launches research on dwindling rice harvests amid growing demand

INTERNATIONAL / 19 AUGUST 2019, 6:00PM / EJIDIAH WANGUI

Photo: Pixabay.
INTERNATIONAL – Mercy Nyokabi wades through a swampy ground trying to chase away a flock of birds having a field day on her farm in rice growing region of Mwea in Central Kenya.

Nyokabi who inherited the rice farm from her parents, said dwindling harvests have been her biggest nightmare. She partly blames the birds but she believes that erratic weather also contributes to the woe.

"The last two years have been the hardest, I barely get a ton from an acre piece of land yet a few years ago we used to get over 30 tons from the same piece of land. This area is suitable for rice farming which makes it hard for us to switch to other crops," said Nyokabi.

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Her woes are likely to be eased as Yara, a global fertilizer manufacturer together with the Kenya's Irrigation Board have commissioned a research to establish the cause of the declining rice harvests.

The investigations are aimed at finding out the amount of damage caused by fertilizers and farm chemicals in the rice growing regions. For instance, Nyokabi still follows the same script her parents used decades ago which Kefa Maranga, an agronomist with Yara attributes to the prevailing situation.

"All what the rice growers are complaining about is as a result of rising soil acidity due to continued use of fertilizers and general poor farming ethic," said Maranga.

He pointed out that continued use of farm chemicals erodes soil of some of the crucial nutrients that plants need for growth and maximum production.

"When crops are starved of this nutrients they tend to stunt and the few that mature produce poorly which is evident in most of the farms here in Mwea. Most crops have a yellowish look which is a clear sign of unhealthy soils, we hope the investigations will lead us to a solution soon," he added.

Notably, most rice farmers in the region use ammonium-based fertilizers that also have high amounts of sulphur which acidifies the soil after continued use for a long time.

"Most fertilizers the farmers use have as high as 24 per cent of sulphur compared to the required 5.5 per cent. These chemicals have been piling up in the soil which I think is the greatest threat to the farmers right now," said Maranga.

Despite Kenya having the capacity to produce enough rice to meet the current demand, the country relies heavily on imports from Pakistan, Vietnam, Thailand and India.

Notably, rice is Kenya's third staple food after maize and wheat and production is estimated at between 33,000 and 50,000 metric tons, while consumption is between 180,000 and 250,000 tons.
                                      
Rice prices likely be set at B10,000 to B14,000
Five types of paddy eligible under Democrats' price guarantee programme
published : 17 Aug 2019 at 19:42
Description: (Bangkok Post file photo) (Bangkok Post file photo)
Paddy prices may be guaranteed at 10,000 to 14,000 baht a tonne for rice farmers initially, according to the commerce minister.
Jurin Laksanawisit said on Saturday that a joint meeting of officials, operators and farmers had agreed to set the prices of five types of paddy.
The output for each farming household varies by paddy type but the acreage per household for all five categories must not exceed 40 rai.
Prices of paddy with 15% humidity will be guaranteed at not lower than 10,000 baht a tonne. Each household can get that price for up to 30 tonnes.
For sticky rice, the price is set at 12,000 baht but with a cap of 16 tonnes per household.
Hom mail paddy growers can expect at least 15,000 baht a tonne, capped at 14 tonnes per household.
Fragrant paddy will fetch 14,000 baht a tonne, limited to 16 tonnes, while Pathum Thani paddy will get 11,000 baht, capped at 25 tonnes.
The Democrat Party leader said the prices would be subject to approval at a Rice Policy Board meeting, which would also set the starting date of the programme.
"Farmers may have to register with the Agricultural Extension Department to join the programme. A panel will be set up to set the benchmark prices every 15 days," he said.
Farmers will be paid through their accounts with Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives, he added.
At the same time, he said, authorities would take steps to reduce production costs such as those for fertilisers, insecticides and harvesting fees. Other measures include promoting large-scale farming and the use of high-quality seeds, as well as buying general insurance for crops.
"Market demand will dictate production. Organic or GAP [Good Agricultural Practice] rice farming and special breeds will be promoted. In the long term, growers will be trained to become smart farmers, with the help of research, development and innovation," said Mr Jurin.
In the short term, urgent measures will be aimed at balancing the market by delaying sales through loan extensions or interest subsidies for operators who agree to stockpile the grain, keeping existing export markets and expanding to new ones.
A price guarantee programme, first introduced during the Abhisit Vejjajiva government (2008-11), has long been championed by the Democrats. It was also believed to be one of the conditions the party set for joining the coalition government.
Under the programme, farmers will be paid only when market prices are lower than the benchmark prices.Its strong points are that, unlike the rival Pheu Thai Party's rice-pledging programme, it does not distort market mechanisms and corruption is generally minimal because the money is deposited directly to farmers' bank accounts.
One of the disadvantages of the programme is the government gets nothing in return for using a large budget to cover price differences, compared to the pledging programme in which rice can be kept for sale at a later date.
Besides, officials have to deal with rampant false claims about the sizes of rice fields by farmers seeking to be paid more. It also puts pressure on prices to rise because millers and others who buy the grain know the government will pay the price differences.

Read more at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/70738925.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

 


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